Posted on 07/20/2013 9:44:43 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Neither Kathy Sanders nor her son, Rico, had ever attended a political rally before, but they joined thousands of people in downtown Atlanta Saturday afternoon to pay tribute to Trayvon Martin and call for an end to racial profiling.
“Showing this kind of togetherness, maybe we can make a change,” said Kathy, a College Park resident and U.S. Postal Service clerk.
Rico Sanders, home for the summer from Jacksonville State where he’s a senior and a shooting guard on the basketball team, was selling T-shirts; five dollars of each sold would be donated to the Trayvon Martin Foundation, he said.
For Dionna Smith, a U.S. Navy veteran standing several yards away, this also marked a first political rally. Smith, who held a sign stating "I am Trayvon Martin," said that she’d participated in parades and marches as a veteran, but never marched for a cause like this. Smith said she was “shocked” last week when George Zimmerman was found not guilty in Martin’s death, but added that whatever the trial’s outcome, Zimmerman will “never walk the earth as a free man; the guilt of shooting Trayvon Martin will stay on his conscience.”
Rally attendees chanted, sang along as gospel star Jennifer Holliday belted out “We Shall Overcome,” and listened to speaker after speaker and prayer after prayer—despite the heavy rain that started shortly after the rally began and fell steadily for more almost an hour. The block between the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building and Richard B. Russell Federal Center was a sea of umbrellas; those who had worn hoodies out of solidarity with Martin pulled up their hoods as the rain continued.
Martin Luther King III and his sister, Bernice, made a joint appearance as the rally headed into its second hour. Martin III reminded the crowd about the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of his father’s famous “Dream” speech, and its less-famous call for the government to make good on the “bad check” issued to its black citizens. “The check still has not been cashed,” said King’s son, adding that he had just come from an NAACP conference at which there had been discussion of “not consuming certain things, like orange juice, from Florida.”
Bernice King said Martin’s death was a “wake up call” to continue to fight for justice. “In many regards, we have fallen asleep,” she said. “God woke us up just in time.”
Reverend Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Kings’ father and grandfather both preached, noted the hoodies among the crowd. “What’s so frightening about a black man in a hoodie in the rain?”he asked. On the other hand, he noted, “We have plenty of data to be worried when we see other folk moving through our neighborhood wearing hoods.”
Warnock called for stricter gun control laws. “We must move from stand your ground to common ground to common sense,” he said.
Did Trayvon hold anti-white views? My guess is that he was a virulent racist with a pathological hatred of whites.
And she did soooo much for him while he was alive, turning him over to her former husband’s second wife and then, after that marriage did not last, to her ex-husband’s girl friend. What an example she set—not! And now so broken up about the loss of the son she hardly knew—imagine! A real teachable moment!!
Getting democrat plantation masters elected.
Gotta keep voting Democrat 'cause there's a Klansman behind every tree.
Is it me, or does it seem like there are many black folks (mostly males) that are afraid they might get shot when they victimize whites?
Common sense?
Total violent crime has dropped by 25% since Florida enacted the “stand your ground” law, even though the state’s population increased by over 1Million since the law was passed.
It would be “common sense” for every state to enact Stand Your Ground laws.
I will not run away from you. You can not force your will on me. That is standing my ground.
You do not threaten to harm me and I will not harm you. That is common ground.
As long as you feel entitled to attack me I am entitled to defend myself. That is common sense.
I think that my answers would anger them. Perhaps they should ask themselves why that is.
Index is up to date.
Keep your fatherless, welfare-whore, hoodie-wearing, coddled, un-educated, rap-loving, jobless, entitled chilrun off my lawn!
“Stand your ground” never came into play here...total red herring argument. It is apparent he was having the tar beat out of him by a bigger, younger, stronger person - having his nose broken and having his skull bashed into the concrete - what does reacting to that have to do with “stand your ground”?
We need to continue moving the Trayvon Martin’s of the country under ground-6 feet under ground.
Common ground with these lying psychos is something I’ll avoid.
I pledge not to stand my ground even if my head is being slammed against a cement walkway. Yes right.
Are these people nuts!? They are actually advocating that if someone is about to kill you or do serious harm that you just have to take it.
Mob rule is coming.
Tawana Brawley
And the protesters should move from a public street to a parking slot of a Seven-Eleven.
Until feral youth are kept in check, I’ll just stand my ground. I trust, but verify all the time with everyone I don’t know.
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